IS: Ragnarok
by Tawnis
Summary: Five years have passed since the events of the IS Anime. Charlotte and Laura have become teachers at the IS Academy while Ichika and company are taking part in the World IS Championships. Yet darkness stirs beneath the surface: A mysterious man connected to Chifuyu's past arrives at the Academy with a dire warning, and everything is not as it seems at the Championships either.
1. Chapter 1 A Long Time Coming

**Chapter I – A Long Time Coming:**

The sea's cooling breeze gently caressed Aaron's face as the ship he was on pulled into port and prepared their small group of passengers for disembarkation. Even over the buildings and further treeline, he could see the spires of the IS Academy as well as the monorail system that came in from the mainland.

Arron preferred the boat, there was something almost sadly poetic to having the fate of a land in your hands from the moment you step off a boat. Perhaps Columbus felt the same way when setting foot in the America for the first time? Hopefully he wouldn't herald quite so much change for the people here; it was doubtful though, things were spiralling out of control so fast.

Still, after so long, it felt good to finally see the Academy up close.

A small hiss sounded and a ramp extended down to the dock. "All ashore that's going ashore!" The captain called. Arron hoisted his duffel bag and took the last look of the Academy as a true outsider; with any luck no one was going to get hurt.

Only a few people debarked with him, likely students returning from visiting relatives on the mainland. They all moved along to a nearby kiosk where their luggage was being scanned by a young woman with a surprisingly large purple bow in her long black hair. She barely made eye contact, instead looking down at a screen showing some kind of event as she pushed through everyone's items. Arron guessed she was likely a part timer by her level of attentiveness. He was the last of the group to be put through and she briefly looked up to acknowledge him. "Please place all items in the scanner." The young woman said absently.

Aaron pulled a badge from his pocket instead and showed it to the woman.

"Oh, sorry sir!" she exclaimed, finally paying attention. "I had no idea you were a member of the oversight committee."

"Not technically," Arron replied "I'm just their representative. Would you happen to know where I can locate Chifuyu Orimura?"

"There is an IS tournament taking place today in the main arena, Miss Orimura always attends. Would you like me to let her know you're coming?"

"No, that won't be necessary." a slight grin crept onto Aaron's face "She's going to berate me enough without giving her time to prepare. Thank you for your help miss..."

"Himegami, Mei Himegami."

"Thank you for your help Miss Himegami, have a nice day."

"You too" she replied earnestly. "Enjoy your stay."

Aaron had a feeling that his level of enjoyment was going to be directly dependant on how good of a mood Chifuyu was in toady.

* * *

Charlotte and Laura sat side by side in the stands as the tournament finalists prepared to square off. Now both teachers at the Academy, when students from their classes competed it almost felt like they were competing themselves.

"I can assure you that Shizuka's tactics will outweigh any equipment advantage you think Ramona might have." After nearly five years at the Academy Charlotte's once thick French accent had faded to only a slight, albeit still noticeable one.

"Nein, you're protege does not have the will for a sustained fight; and this will not be a quick victory," Though she had been at the Academy just as long, Laura prided herself on maintaining her thick German accent.

"Perhaps a friendly wager then?" Charlotte offered.

"Interesting, what do you propose?"

"If Shizuka wins, you have to grade my class' assignments for me for the next two weeks."

"Agreed, but it will you how will be taking on extra work, when Ramona outlasts your protege's parlour tricks."

"You know you're not allowed to place wagers on the students." Neither of them had heard Chifuyu enter the viewing box.

"It's just a little bet, care for a piece of the action?" Charlotte offered.

"Nether of you could handle my workload." Chifuyu smiled ever so slightly "but if I was to place a bet, I'd put my money on Shizuka."

"How could you say that Mentor?" Laura demanded "You have seen all the previous rounds, Ramona won each of them by a much greater margin."

"Perhaps, but I think this match is going to teach you and her a valuable tactical lesson."

Laura was about to reply when a siren went off signalling the combatants to ready themselves. A moment later Miss Yamada's voice came over the arena intercom. "Ladies, this is the moment you've all been waiting for, the championship match between Spain's representative contender Ramona Cruz piloting her personal IS the Dragon Turtle..."

At the mention of her name Ramona took off from the Arena floor. She had fair skin and short brown hair that could fall freely without getting in her eyes. Dragon Turtle looked more turtle than dragon; her entire front was plated in light green overlapping armour and her hands looked like claws, each with a red orb in the palm. Floating just off her back was a large plated shield and from a distance, it looked like she carried no weapons.

"and Japan's representative contender Shizuka Himegami and her personal IS the Ninjutsu!"

Now Shizuka joined her opponent in the air. She was short with black pigtails and both her looks and spunk reminded Charlotte more that a little bit of her friend Rin, despite the differences in their places of birth. The Ninjutsu was almost all black and had light armour platting along the arms and legs. Otherwise the unit had little defences to speak of and a hood that covered Shizuka's face; with the exception of the pigtails that poked out the front. In each hand she held a Kusarigama; a weapon akin to a sickle on a chain.

Ramona smiled as her opponent approached. "Don't expect me to go easy on you, I will become become the years IS champion and prove myself to Mentor Bodewig."

Shizuka laughed, "Well, you better not count me out just yet; our teachers were in the same IS unit after all their skill levels are relatively the same. I've learned a thing or two myself."

"Then it's time to put your money where you mouth is!" Ramona retorted.

Another buzzer sounded throughout the arena, followed immediately by Miss Yamada yelling "Begin!"

* * *

**So that's Chapter I, thank you all for reading. :) Chapter II will be up in 1-2 weeks but Chapter III won't be out until sometime in December. (Once Season 2 is released in dub so I can watch it and adjust anything I need to accordingly). **

**Please let me know what you think constructive criticism is always welcome. **


	2. Chapter 2 The Next Generation

**Chapter II – The Next Generation:**

Shizuka made the first move. Dashing forward in a blur, she whipped her Kusarigamas by their chains and brought them down towards Ramona's head.

Ramona was ready for the attack however. With a slight gesture, the shield on her back split in two and came around her sides, joining back together in front of her to block the attack. When the Kusarigamas connected with the shield, the orbs in her palms glowed for a moment. Ramona punched forward trying to bash Shizuka with her shield, but there was no one there.

With a brief boost Shizuka had flipped up and over her opponent. Ramona wasn't having any of it though, she flew forward while spinning to face Shizuka; her shield moving independently had already come around to block the incoming attack. The Kusarigamas struck her shield and once again the orbs in her hands glowed. Just as a smile began to form on Ramona's face, an explosion from behind sent her sprawling.

"See," Charlotte remarked "even the Dragon Turtle's shield cannot cover all angles at once."

"Landing the first hit is not important," Laura retorted "only the last matters."

Ramona hit the ground hard and her shield indicator dropped to 522/600. She was on the move in an instant, just as a Kusarigama sliced the air where she had been a moment before. The Ninjutsu had so many more attack variations than an average IS, Ramona knew she couldn't afford to miss anything in a fight like this. She swerved left, barely avoiding another tiny explosive that had been set in her path. They may have been small but they packed a major punch.

Her HUD lit up signalling that Shizuka had a target lock. Her shield swung around just in time to stop dozens of tiny Shuriken-like energy projectiles. Ramona's hands lit up again for a brief moment but as soon as the shield was up the attack stopped and Shizuka was on the move again; she was too smart to pound away uselessly on Ramona's shield.

The Dragon Turtle was a defensive based early fourth generation IS unit; its shield was nearly impregnable, but it sacrificed offensive capability for that safety. To compensate the IS redirected the energy of the incoming attacks to an outlet on each hand. While they would charge slowly on their own, blocking attacks sped up the process greatly.

Ramona got a lock on Shizuka while she was still repositioning and knew it was time to strike back. Her shield split into two smaller shields and with a swing, she threw one like a giant discus. Shizuka saw it coming however and set off several smoke bombs in front of her. The target lock was lost and Ramona's shield sailed through without making contact.

Shizuka flew from the smoke the second the shield missed. With both Kusarigama's held tight by the handles instead of the chains, she maximized her short range mobility. Ramona blocked the first strike with her remaining shield and grabbed Shizuka's other wrist with her free hand to stop the second.

Held tight by Ramona, Shizuka swung mercilessly with her free hand, but every blow was met by Ramona's shield as her palm began to glow brighter.

Shizuka saw Ramona look past her and in an instant knew what was about to happen. She tried to pull free but couldn't wrestle her way out of Ramona's iron grip. As the Dragon Turtle's shield came flying back, Shizuka spun trying to avoid it, but couldn't get enough distance while she was still trapped by Ramona. The returning shield slammed into her side, tearing her from Ramona's grasp and sending her crashing to the arena floor.

The Ninjutsu's shield dropped to 327/500. As a late third generation IS, the Ninjutsu didn't have the specs to match the Dragon Turtle, Shizuka couldn't afford to take another hit like that. The unit was based heavily around the concept the Rafale Revive used in the second generation, sacrificing advanced tech for battlefield options. As long as she could use them to avoid a direct attack, Shizuka was confident she could still win this fight.

Ramona dove down towards her trying to slam Shizuka with her shield. More smoke bombs detonated however and now unable to change her trajectory, Ramona only succeeded in burring her shield in the ground.

Shizuka used the opportunity to strike, having swapped her Kusarigama for a pair of Kunai. She quickly hit Ramona several times in the side before she was forced out of the smoke and got her shields up to block.

The Dragon Turtle's shield energy dropped to 397/600, but as the blows stopped, Ramona realized her special attacks were almost charged. She just had to hold on a little longer, then she'd be able to drop her squirmy opponent in one stroke.

As Shizuka gained some distance, Ramona readied herself for the next attack. She didn't have to wait long though, once Shizuka was far enough away six energy Chackrams appeared beside her and took off towards their target.

Shifting her shields to the exact right angles, Ramona calculated the trajectory of the incoming attacks and prepared to block appropriately. Five of the disks bounced harmlessly off her shields, but one changed its direction at the last moment, slipping past her guard and hitting her square in the chest. The impact sent Ramon a tumbling back through the air and dropped her shield energy to 242/600.

"Too slow Ramona!" Shizuka baited from across the arena.

Ramona looked at her gauntlet's charge, that last attack pushed them up to 100%. Time for some payback. "We'll see who's really too slow now!" she retorted as she extended her right arm.

Tendrils of energy shot out like lightning from the orb in her palm and reached Shizuka in a matter of moments. For a split second, Ramona thought she missed, but the energy tendrils latched tight to the Ninjutsu and dragged Shizuka back to her nearly as fast. "Now everyone will see where the Dragon part comes from!"

Ramona snapped up her left hand and a gout of flame poured forth from her palm and enveloped Shizuka. "Game, set, match." she announced triumphantly.

"Still too slow." Ramona heard the words a split second before Shizuka's Kusarigama's smashed into her back, sending her head over heels to the arena floor.

"What was that!" Laura exclaimed.

Charlotte grinned knowingly and Chifuyu took a moment to explain. "That's the Ninjutsu's one off ability, Doppelganger. It creates a hard light copy of itself at the same time as it bends light to make itself invisible for a few seconds. The copy takes the hit and Shizuka is free to strike back."

Ramona crashed hard, her shield energy dropping to 32/600. A target lock signal flashed up on her HUD and she spun her shield around to block. She was a fraction of a second too slow however and a pair of energy Shurikens hit her in the chest dropping her shield energy to zero and ending the match.

The crowd went wild as Miss Yamada announced "We have our tournament champion Shizuka Himegami!"

Shizuka flew down to where Ramona laid and offered her a hand up. Ramona took her best friend's hand with a smile "That was a neat trick, but I'll be ready for it next time."

With a slight tug, Shizuka pulled Ramona to her feet before removing her hood to reveal a pearly smile. "You should know by now that I'll always have a new trick up my sleeve."

Laura remained in her chair thinking, perhaps if Ramona were able to master he own one off ability she would have been able to take the match.

"Do you realize why she lost?" Chifuyu asked.

"Ja Mentor, Ramona lacking the ability to use her own one off ability put her at a disadvantage."

"That is true, however that was only part of it. I believe she still would have lost even if she had learned how to use the Cyclone."

"Then why?"

"When you looked back at all the matches they had fought so far, you saw the wrong things. While Ramona did win by a greater margin, she employed the same tactic in each match, defend until she had her Dragon's Tail and Dragon's Breath charged and use them in tandem to finish off her opponent. Shizuka however used different tactics in each match, making her less practised in each, but more versatile overall. When this match began she knew exactly what Ramona's strategy was and had a plan to counter it."

Laura thought about it for a few moments, it made sense. How had she not thought of that?

"You're still learning to be a teacher, but you did very well." Chifuyu noted. "In every match someone as to loose, they just out planned you this time."

"Your students sure are impressive." came a male voice from behind them.

Chifuyu stopped at the sound, it had been so long, how could he possibly be here after all these years?

Aaron leaned against the door of the viewing box with a soft smile of his face. "It's been a long time Chi, have you missed me?"

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed Chapter II. Writing an IS fight for the first time was a lot of fun, I didn't utilize the "gravity is not a factor" as much as I thought I would, but I plan to in the future. Still I hope it was an interesting fight and if anything was confusing, please let me know.**

**Also, at the end of my last chapter, I said chapter III wouldn't be out until the second season of the dub came out and I could watch it; however chapter III turned out a fair bit longer than I expected it to and so it became two chapters. I now plan on having chapter III out in two weeks and the next chapter as soon as I finish the second season. Once that is out I plan on doing updates once every two weeks. **


	3. Chapter 3 The Warning

**Chapter III – Reunion:**

If Laura hadn't know Chifuyu as long as she had, she may have missed the brief flash of shock across her Mentor's face. There was something else too, fear perhaps? Laura had never seen Chifuyu afraid before so she didn't have a frame of reference to go by.

The man at the door had short black hair that was a little wavy in the front and dark brown eyes. He was slender but still had some muscle to him and sported a short goatee.

"Aaron... I... I thought you were dead?" Chifuyu asked still shaking off the surprise.

"Not quite, but I did get a little singed. It's good to see you again Chi."

He came across the room and for a moment it looked like two we going to hug. As Aaron leaned in however, Chifuyu grabbed his left arm, took his legs out from under him and flattened him face first on the floor in one swift motion. She stepped down hard on his back and pulled his arm back, nearly taking it out of it's socket.

"Ah, shit Chi! I'm hear to help, I swear to God I'm here to help!"

"You think you can just come waltzing back in here after the stunt you pulled? We though you died in that explosion and you just show up after a decade like nothing ever happened!"

Charlotte leaned over to whisper in Laura's ear. "Now I see where you learned your way with boys."

"Security!" Chifuyu shouted.

Arron moved his head the little bit that he could to get a good look at others. "Laura, Charlotte, you don't know me but you're all in grave danger. Please get her to let me explain, it's a matter of life and death."

The news stunned them both for a moment but Charlotte stepped up quickly. "Miss Orimura, if there really is a threat to us and this Academy shouldn't we at least hear him out?"

"Besides," Laura put in "if his information is unsatisfactory, you can always take his arm off then."

Chifuyu grumbled for a moment, but slowly released Aaron's arm and got off of him. Security came through the door a moment later but she waved them off.

Aaron slowly got to his feet, grasping tight to his left shoulder. "Damn Chi, I forgot how strong you are."

Chifuyu crossed her arms and glared daggers at Aaron. "You have thirty seconds to explain yourself before I toss your sorry ass off this island and let you swim home!"

"You expect me to sum up the last decade of my life in thirty seconds?"

"Twenty-five seconds."

"Okay, okay, uhhh, bottom line... There's a clandestine organization not allied with any government and they have been staling IS development data worldwide perhaps since the first companies started research so that they can build and IS army for what I can only assume is going to be something very unpleasant and they could be ready to launch an attack on the IS Academy at any moment." Aaron took a deep breath, recovering after the quick rant.

Everyone else in the room stood in shock for a moment. Chifuyu pushed past the surprise fastest though "We've dealt with groups like Phantom Task before, we can handle ourselves without your intervention."

"Please, Phantom Task? The group of power hungry misfits who don't know the meaning of the world subtle? No I mean a real secret organization that's building an army, not a few brats with a bone to pick with you."

Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose, a habit he'd had when frustrated for at least as long as Chifuyu had known him. "Look Chi, I know we've had our differences in the past but even though you disagree with what I did, you know I was only trying to do the right thing. I'm still trying to do the right thing, and this time we can be on the same side."

"It's Miss Orimura here," Chifuyu replied "but you have my attention. This better not be some kind of scheme."

Chifuyu tapped a button that controlled the loudspeakers. "Attention all students, due to unforeseen circumstances, the victory celebrations will be postponed and an immediate curfew will be in affect. Please return to your dorms, I will announce when the re-scheduling is complete. That is all."

"That you Ch... Miss Orimura."

"You better damn well hope this is worth my time. Dunois, Bodewig, since you've already heard this you're involved now. Conference room, fifteen minutes."

"Ch...augh, I mean Miss Orimura, don't try to contact Tabane or anyone else. They are monitoring all communications out of the island and they may strike right away if they know I've warned you."

"Fine, but only until I get a full explanation; then we'll see." Chifuyu motioned Laura and Charlotte over "Girls a moment please?" As they came over she shot a glare at Aaron.

"Seriously?"

Another glare.

"Augh, fine." He turned around and stuck his fingers in his ears. "La, ti, da, I'm not listening, I'm not listening..."

"Girls, I want you to keep a close eye on him while I go check on a few things. Keep him occupied, but most importantly, keep him away from any IS units or IS tech. Then meet me in the conference room in fifteen, got it."

"Yes ma'am." They replied in unison.

"Good, now get him out of my sight; I need a minute to think." As Chifuyu left that room, Arron was now humming to himself with his ears still plugged.

"He's supposed to be a threat?" Charlotte asked.

"He is more than he appears," Laura replied "I have never seen Mentor Orimura act this way before. Perhaps we can get her to tell us about their history later?"

"Or we could just ask him?" Charlotte tapped Aaron on the shoulder and he pulled his fingers out of his ears. "Would you care for a short walk, Miss Orimura had to go check on a few things."

"Yeah sure, I was actually hoping I'd get a chance to talk to you both."

Aaron headed out the door and down the hallways with Charlotte on his right and Laura on his left. It felt like they were escorting him rather than accompanying him, but that was to be expected.

"I've read both of your files and you have very impressive records. The Rosario Gospel incident was a particularly interesting read."

A brief moment of uncertainty flashed across both their faces. Aaron knew that the Gospel incident had been classified top secret and wanted them to realize just how much information he actually possessed. With any luck, it would make them a little more inclined to believe his warning.

"So why did to two people who could easily be competing on the world stage with their friends right now choose to become teachers at the IS Academy instead?"

"Mentor Orimura has done so much for me, I owe her more that I could possibly express. I hope to be that for someone one day."

"And you Charlotte?"

"Well, to be honest... I don't really have anywhere else to go. My papa was quite... unhappy when I was unable to be the person he wanted me to be. I don't have a place at the Dunois corporation anymore and since my mama died, the only people I care about are here; or will be back here soon. So I've stayed."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that the teachers here..." Aaron stopped talking as the two students he had witnessed competing in the arena earlier came jogging down the hall towards them.

"Miss Dunois," Shizuka asked "why did the tournament after party... get... cancelled... who's your cute new friend?"

Aaron bowed politely. "Aaron Harker ladies, pleasure to make your acquaintance. That was a heck of a show you two put on."

"Oh, he's nice too. Is he your boyfriend Teach; or is he up for grabs?"

Ramona smacked Shizuka upside the head. "Show more respect to your teachers and their guest." Ramona bowed on Shizuka's behalf "Please forgive her rudeness."

"I've got nearly a decade on you kid," Aaron laughed "not gunna happen."

"Well it's not like there are a lot of options around here." Shizuka whined "the closest thing I have to a relationship is when I can cuddle Ramona without her realizing it."

That earned her another smack upside the head.

"You two should get back to your dorm." Charlotte said "I promise that we will reschedule the after party, but it may take a few days."

"Fine, as long as you promise." Shizuka agreed.

"You should consider yourselves lucky, back in our day we never managed to finish a tournament without some kind of calamity happening... isn't that right Laura?"

Laura blushed slightly "Only one of those times was my fault and I apologized."

"I guess we'll see you later Teach."

The pair of them started off together talking quietly between themselves before Aaron called after them. "It's Ramona right?!" he asked.

She turned back around. "Yes, that's me."

"When you have multiple incoming vectors, you can calibrate your IS to monitor the direction of the drag on said vectors. When an object changes direction, the drag changes too, that way your IS can adjust your blocks without waiting for a visual confirmation, which is much more delayed."

Ramona paused and thought for a second before realizing that he was right. "Oh, yeah that makes sense... thank you."

"No problem, have a good evening ladies."

The two students sauntered off whispering rather loudly as Aaron turned to Laura. "Sorry if I stole your thunder a bit there. I know you're her teacher and all, I just noticed it during that match."

"That was good advice," Laura agreed "but I am curious as to how a man has such knowledge of the IS's capabilities."

"I was wondering that myself." Charlotte added crossing her arms and staring questioningly at Aaron.

"Well, I know all this stuff for the same reason that I know Chi; and the same reason that brought me all the way here. I helped Tabane design the first two IS units."

* * *

**So that's Chapter 3, did anyone suspect Aaron's link to Tabane? I couldn't really hint at it much in only 3 chapters but I guess I want to know if it's flowing well so far.**

**I did manage to wrangle Infinite Stratos 2 dubbed the other day so chapter 4 will be up on schedule in 2 weeks.**

**Also, for anyone wondering what is going on with Ichika and the rest of the gang, we will be getting to that in chapter 5. **

**Thanks for reading. :)**


	4. Chapter 4 Old Friends

**Chapter IV – Old Friends:**

"What!" was the only stunned response Laura and Charlotte could get out.

Aaron chuckled, it had been a long time since he had told anyone that little tidbit of information. "I met Tabane when I was living in Japan as a foreign exchange student. She's one of the only people I've ever met with an IQ higher than mine so we became fast friends. I thought that her dream of building the IS was amazing, and while she did do most of the work, I helped design the IS's logical data analysis language and adaptive interface and assistance drive. Basically to oversimplify, I taught the IS units how to learn; more-less."

Laura furrowed her brow as she processed everything Aaron was saying. "But if that is all true, then why did Mentor Orimura feel such hostility towards you?"

"Yeah about that... we sort of... had a falling out. We disagreed on how and why the IS should be used and even the vary manor of it's release. Tabane is a genius, but she gets carried away and often is too overconfident in her own superiority. Chifuyu sided with her best friend and we never saw each other again; until now."

"We should head over to the meeting room, but can you please tell us what happened on the way?" Charlotte asked. "What was that Miss Orimura said about an explosion?"

"Ugh, yeah... that. That's a rather long story and I don't have time to tell it now. Suffice to say that Chi and Tabs both thought I died and I decided to keep it that way due to our increasingly conflicting ideals about the IS."

Charlotte eyed Aaron curiously, he was hiding something for sure, but he had already offered up so much information she didn't see any reason to press him on it. Just pressing on him though, that might be another story... she shook her head clear the moment the thought crossed her mind. Ever since Ichika and Houki started officially dating she had been getting increasingly restless, but now was far from the time to deal with that.

Aaron was a few paces in front of them and didn't notice, but her best friend raised her eyebrow.

"Hey Laura," Aaron asked unintentionally diverting Laura's attention away from Charlotte. "The AIC you use in the Schwarzer Regen; did the German IS core ever try adapting it for full body defence?"

"Ja, it was a long project but it was eventually scrapped. The IS was able to generate the field successfully, but the entire unit had to be built around it leaving it without a weapon system. They tried hundreds of times to integrate a weapon but each time it only destabilized the AIC."

"I figured as much, a researcher I know was working on a project using AIC, but it seems the German Government was having the same issues he was. I was thinking of adapting the design though. If, or more likely when, there ever is a war with IS units, then keeping damaged or disabled pilots alive would be critical. What about using the AIC in a support capacity, for example to protect a medical IS or a rescue unit or some sort?"

"Hmm, that would make sense, but the governments are unlikely to fund such a project given it's limited application." Laura replied.

"Make no mistake ladies, an IS war is inevitable; it's just a matter of when and how devastating it will be. Wasn't it a German who once said... ahem... _Des Teufels liebstes Möbelstück ist die lange Bank." _

_"You speak German __well, __with a bit of an accent__.__" __Laura commented. Aaron didn't think it sounded like a compliment, more like a statement of fact. _

_"I speak a lot of languages, after I stopped working on the IS with Tab__s__, I had a lot of correspondence with many of the corporations dealing in IS research and development. It helped a lot if I could speak the language, so I picked up a few dozen."_

While Charlotte listened to them talk, she realized that Aaron was now at the front and they were following him. He seemed to know exactly where he was going too, perhaps he somehow gained access to a map of the Academy; then again if he was as well connected as he claimed it wouldn't be much of a stretch.

Aaron stopped in front of a thick oak door. "This is the staff board room right?"

Charlotte and Laura nodded in unison.

"Well, this is what I came all this way for; let's get to it."

Aaron pushed the door open to find a plain room with a large oak table that had some kind of projection system built into the middle of it. Chifuyu sat at the head of the table, to her right sat a green haired woman with large glasses and to her left was a tall and heavyset, but muscular woman with black hair and tanned skin.

"Ah, this must be your aid Maya Yamada, and your new head of security Carmen Ramirez." Aaron stated as he sat at the table opposite Chifuyu while Laura and Charlotte quietly took up seats beside him.

"You seem to know an awful lot about us and the Acadamy Mister Harker." Carmen noted behind crossed arms and a scowl.

"If there's one thing I've learned recently it's that if you want to keep bullets outside of your body, you know everything about a situation before walking into it." Aaron replied.

"And yet you can't seem to give us an accurate assessment of, or even if, there will in fact be any danger." Chifuyu noted.

Aaron took a deep breath as all the eyes in the room fixed on him. He knew they were going to gang up on him, but this was a little much. "Well at least I have your attention now and can start from the beginning and you can decide for yourselves what to believe."

"Twelve years ago after Tabane, Chifuyu, and I parted ways, I moved back to Canada to work on a way of making the IS usable by men as well."

"Did you succeed?" Carmen asked.

"Do you think I would have arrived on a boat if I had?"

"That wasn't a no."

"I'll get to that part of the story, just let me tell it;" Aaron retorted. "As I was saying: I spent a few years working on my own in secret, but as the technology became more accessible and more companies were engaging in IS R&amp;D. I was able to get a job under an assumed name and quickly became the head of Starlight Tech's small male IS division."

"I know them," Charlotte pipped up, "they are a direct competitor with the Dunois corporation. I heard a few unsubstantiated rumours that they were trying to develop male IS tech as well, back when I could still keep tabs on such things."

"Well they weren't rumours, I was plugged in to almost every major IS research team worldwide. Because of the Alaska Treaty, IS data had to be shared so with the exception of the top secret stuff a lot of the labs kept in contact."

"Years went by and although progress was exceptionally slow, there was progress. We couldn't adapt the core directly as it simply wouldn't accept a male pilot, but system by system we were able to make modifications and adapt parts of an IS, not the entire unit. We made most of our progress within the last two years, but that's when things started getting strange."

"How so?" Maya asked.

"Reports started disappearing more frequently and shipments of tech were inexplicably lost in transit; not enough to raise serious red flags but enough that I began to suspect it might be intentional. There were a lot of dead ends, they covered their tracks very well but eventually I found this."

Arron slid a thumb drive into a port of the table and a holographic display of a seemingly mundane work order appeared.

"What exactly are we looking at?" Cifuyu asked.

"This is a requisition form for third generation IS joint components for one of our experiments. It looks normal to the naked eye and even to most high intensity scans. However my lab had one of the most advanced microscopic analysis tools in existence and I was able to find this:"

The hologram zoomed in to the bottom right hand corner of the page. It was a place where there was no text and looked completely blank. However as it kept zooming in and the individual fibres became visible, Chifuyu noticed a small speck on a few individual fibres. The hologram zoomed in on one even more; it was still hard to see even when the fibre seemed massive but there was certainly something there.

An image of a coiled serpent devouring it's tail flickered into existence beside the image of the fibre. "This is an even more enlarged version of the symbol," Aaron stated "and it has appeared on every shipment that has disappeared and none that have not. The symbol itself is impossible to detect unless you know what you're looking for, or in my case had an idea what to look for and were incredibly lucky."

"You came all this way with claims of a secret organization and all you have to go on is this symbol?" Chifuyu asked.

"Originally yes; I booked a long overdue vacation then grabbed all my notes and made for Japan. I had hoped that you would be able to get a message to Tabane that someone was stealing IS tech in the amounts that could be used to build several dozen IS units if they had cores to power them. However, there have been two attempts on my life on the way here. The first was a professional and I only survived on a fluke, the second was an unidentified IS unit but I managed to evade it by disabling it's sensor net. I'm sure you caught wind of the incident at Heathrow Airport three days ago."

"That unidentified IS that went wild on the tarmac?" Laura said.

"Cecilia found out about it before they classified the whole thing." Charlotte noted "The current speculation was that it was a prototype that was meant to have it's debut at the IS Championships in London."

"Well it wasn't;" Aaron corrected. "Heathrow was my layover point between Canada and here, the IS attacked me just before boarding, but I managed to short out it's control systems. After that it flew out of the airport and shot up the tarmac before overloading and making an escape. My plane was the last one to get out before they shut down the airport."

"So far your story makes me think that they are only after you," Chifuyu noted "why would they come here?"

"I don't think they know exactly how much I've figured out and want to eliminate me to be on the safe side. The fact that they sent an IS unit into a highly populated airport means that they aren't worried about secrecy anymore, which means they are nearly ready to strike. Your shipment of generation three security IS units arrives tomorrow evening; if I were going to attack the academy, I'd do it before then."

"Well it seems that we've got an easy ay to test your theory then, don't we." Chifuyu said. "You can stay here until the IS shipment arrives tomorrow and until then we will take every security precaution. If nothing happens and the delivery goes smoothly, I'll conclude that you are lying for some unknown reason and you will be forcibly detained. Is that understood?"

"Sounds fair to me." Aaron replied.

"Dunois, Bodewig, you will be Aaron's escort's and guards until I say otherwise. He is not to leave your side under any circumstance. Is that understood?!"

"Yes ma'am!" They replied in unison.

"Dismissed!"

As he and the girls walked out of the room, Aaron turned back to Chifuyu. "For once Chi, I sincerely hope I'm wrong." Even as he said the words though Aaron knew it was only wishful thinking. He wasn't wrong. Very soon, death would be coming to the IS academy.

* * *

**For those of you not fluent in German, the phrase that Aaron says to Laura translates to "The devil's favourite piece of furniture is the long bench." In German, putting something in "The Long Bench" means to put it off or to procrastinate.**

**Sorry for the delay in getting this Chapter up, the Christmas season has been super hectic. Next chapter we will touch base with Ichika and the others at the IS Championships. I was hoping to have it together for next weekend but I've got another project I need to work on as well, so expect the usual two week delay. **

**Also, in regards to my decision to put Ichika with Houki: I wanted to have this story as accurate as I could to what I think the future could be like for the Anime plot-line. While I personally think the Ichika and Charlotte have more chemistry (especially in season 1) the show seems to be going in a very Ichika/Houki direction as of the end of season 2; so that is how I decided I'd write his future. **

**As always, please feel free to**** leave any thoughts or constructive criticism. **


	5. Chapter 5 The World IS Tournament

**Chapter V – The World IS Tournament:**

"Well, that went better then I expected." Aaron said.

"That was better?" Charlotte asked "what exactly were you expecting?"

"Let's just say I consider myself lucky I wasn't booted off the island. Chi's someone who can really hold a grudge."

Now that the excitement was dying down a yawn creeped up on Aaron. "If there's one thing that Chi can handle it's prep for battle; I on the other hand have been up for nearly forty-eight hours now. I need some shut eye."

Charlotte and Laura exchanged glances, Chifuyu had told them to keep an eye on Aaron at all times. "I guess you're staying with us." Charlotte said.

If sharing a room with two female strangers bothered Aaron it didn't show. "Alright, lead the way ladies."

Charlotte and Laura had shared a room since their time as students and although their teachers dorm was slightly bigger it was sparse. Laura was still military through and through and adopted a very Spartan style of living, Charlotte left everything behind when she left the Dunois corporation and hadn't accumulated too many possessions since then.

"We should have a spare cot in the closet." Charlotte said as she pushed the door open.

"At this point even the floor is looking mighty comfy." Aaron said followed up by another yawn. "If you ladies don't mind I'm going to change quickly."

Charlotte blushed a little "Well I suppose we could look away until you are done."

"Uhh... or I could just use the bathroom that's right here?" Aaron noted ducking into the adjacent room and closing the door behind him.

In all the time Charlotte had spent living with Ichika, why had she never thought to change in the bathroom? That certainly would have prevented a few embarrassing situations.

Charlotte's memory was interrupted by a smack across the back of the head. "What are you doing?" Laura demanded "We still don't even know if we can trust him and you're already flirting?"

"Sacrebleu, you think that was flirting? He just caught me off guard, that's all."

Laura pulled apart the closet doors and walked in. "We all took loosing to Houki differently-"

"This has nothing to do with that!"

"but you can't just throw yourself the first man who walks in the door." Laura continued as if Charlotte had said nothing.

"First off, I am nowhere near throwing myself at him, yes he's oddly charming but that is all. Second, even if I was interested, which I'm not, I would expect my best friend to be supportive. And third, if there really is an attack on the Academy looming, we have far more important things to worry about."

"I am merely concerned as your friend; you are a very impulsive person Charlotte."

"Say's the person who kissed Ichika in front of the entire class then snuck into his bed naked?"

The tiniest wisp of a devilish grin crossed Laura's face. "I did not say you were more impulsive then I."

The pair pulled the cot from the closest just as Aaron came out of the bathroom. He now wore baggy track pants and a loose t-shirt referencing some band Charlotte had never heard of.

Charlotte flopped the cot onto the floor while Laura retrieved some spare blankets and pillows from the closet.

"I really appreciate this ladies, it's been a much warmer reception than I had feared."

Laura came out of the closet and tossed Aaron the linens. "So, why did you leave the IS project in the first place?" she asked.

"Originally the IS was intended for space exploration." Aaron stated as he began putting his bed together. "We would have explored new frontiers in science and technology. However, no matter how long we worked on it we couldn't get the IS to function in space, the components kept freezing and no matter what we tried we couldn't get the shielding to compensate properly for vacuum; so the project was indefinitely shelved.

Then Tabs hit up of the idea of using IS units for entertainment purposes, sporting events and the like. I disagreed; I felt that allowing the general population to get a hold of IS units was dangerous. Even with the safety features she proposed... any system can be hacked, I didn't think we should take that risk. Still I knew she would eventually succeed even without me so I stayed on to try to mitigate the damage, but it just got worse.

Late in testing after the first two prototypes we done, we discovered that only women had the capability to pilot an IS. I insisted that more testing was needed, we just got gender equality on track in most countries and something like this would through that all out of balance. Again she wouldn't listen and I felt that I could no longer be part of the project, so I left." Arron curled up in his newly made bed as he finished his tale.

"I guess I never really thought about the IS like that.: Charlotte admitted. "With Ichika around, it didn't seem so unequal all the time."

"I'm more curious about your departure from the program." Laura interrupted. "You said that you left, but Mentor mentioned something about an explosion and believing you to be dead."

"Yes... that. It's... complicated; and not something I'd like to get into right before bed. If you ladies don't mind, I could really use some shut eye."

"Of course," Charlotte said "we can discuss the rest in the morning over breakfast."

Laura scowled at her fried but Charlotte simply rolled over and turned off the light. Arron was hiding something, of that Laura was sure, and it would only be a matter of time until she found out what it was.

* * *

Rin, Houki, Tatenashi, and Kanzashi sat together in the stands waiting for the first round of the quarterfinals of the World IS Championship to begin. Kanzashi was the only member of the group to be eliminated from the tournament so far, and was now setting up dozens of recording devices to track every aspect of the match. Everyone else would be participating in their own matches soon enough.

"So, do you think that Ichika can pull this off?" Houki asked.

"There's no way Cecelia's going to beat him." Rin insisted, "We've all seen him fight, as much as I hate to admit it, he does outclass us; and you better not tell him I said that!"

"I'm not so sure..." Tatenashi mused. "Ichika's good don't get me wrong, but where he truly shines is when he is fighting for someone's life. That kind of backed into a corner determination can't just be produced on demand. Cecilia on the other hand prides herself on how others see her, fighting for reputation is a lot more important to her. This match will be much closer then you think."

She turned to her sister, "Kanzashi can you... why are you fidgeting so much."

Kanzashi blushed slightly, "The match is about to start and I spent so much time setting up my sensors I forgot to go to the bathroom."

"Well then get going."

"But I don't want to miss the match."

"You're already recording everything, if you hurry you should get back in time."

"I... augh!" Kanzashi shot up from her chair and ran awkwardly off to find a bathroom.

"Is she ever not going to be the awkward one?" Rin asked.

"Personally, I think it suits her." Tatenashi replied.

* * *

Ichika Orimura flexed the fingers of Byakushiki, he'd been a pilot for so long now it no longer felt like an extension of his arm, but that it was now his arm itself.

He took a deep breath, he'd fought hundreds of times before and even a few so far in the tournament; but now in the quarter-finals of the world championships he doubted anything would untangle the knot in his gut.

His entry door remained sealed but he could see the field through a small window and hear the announcer calling his opponent onto the battlefield. "Ladies and gentleman, the first match of the world championships quarter finals is about to begin. Put your hands together for the Hometown Heroine, the Blue Beauty, Miss... Cecilia Alcott!"

The crowd went wild as Blue Tears streaked out of the gate. Cecilia took a few laps around the arena then came to a stop near the middle.

"And now the pilot you've all been waiting for, the only man in the world who can pilot an IS... Ichika Orimura!"

The door in front of him whipped open in an instant and Ichika took off. The applause for Cecilia had been loud, but his were deafening. He did the same three laps around the arena and came to a stop before Cecilia.

"Good luck Cecilia, may the best pilot win."

She gave him a coy smirk and a wink. "Don't worry Ichika dear, I will."

The announcer's voice filled the stadium once again. "Let the quarterfinals for the world IS championships begin!"

* * *

Kanzashi could hear the match already in progress as she came out of the bathroom. The hallways around the arena were completely empty, everyone in the building was fixated on the match; even the food vendors had left their booths to watch.

As she jogged back to the stairs leading to her seat, something caught her eye. A person in a dark trench coat and hood carrying a leather briefcase snuck almost unnoticed into an employee's only section of the building.

Kanzashi looked down at the ring on her finger. It's not like she couldn't handle herself if there was some sort of trouble. She jogged over to the door but there was no window to see what was going on inside. Quietly she opened the door just a crack and peeked inside.

The room was dark and as far as she could see, was full of electrical equipment. The briefcase sat open on what looked like an oil drum in the corner of the room, but it was too dark to see what was inside. Of the person she saw go into the room, there was no sign.

Quiet as a mouse, she crept inside. The equipment looked like it was one of the power supply nodes to the shields that protected the audience from the IS matches. Inside the briefcase was a small device, roughly the side of a football with a timer in the middle counting down and currently at 4:23.

"Oh my God." she whispered "A bomb."

There was no time to call for help, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out her PDA interface, there had to be something she could do.

"You shouldn't be here." The voice caused her to jump nearly out of her skin. She spun around to face the person she saw sneak into the room. He looked to be in his mid thirties and had a long brown beard. "You're in trouble." he chuckled.

Kanzashi outstretched her arm to deploy her IS, but before she could, something smashed over the back of her head and her world went dark.

* * *

**Sorry everyone for the long delay in getting this chapter posted. My girlfriend has been very ill this past month and a half and I've spent most of my free time taking care of her. Now that she is on the mend though, regular updates should resume every second week without a hitch. (Hopefully)**

**Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As always comments and constructive criticism is most welcome. **


	6. Chapter 6 Paladin

**Chapter VI – Paladin:**

Aaron sat watching the display monitors and the small fleet of ships bringing the Academy their new IS units approached the island. Chifuyu stood over his shoulder watching the same screen and seeing the same thing they had seen all day; that other than the ships arriving slightly behind schedule, nothing was going wrong.

Miss Yamada had taken an honour guard out to formally meet and accept the new IS units and Aaron had asked Laura to stay on standby hidden near the docks in case things went wrong. That left only himself, Chifuyu, Charlotte, and a few support staff in the command room.

"We're receiving a call from the lead ship." Charlotte said.

"Put it through." Chifuyu ordered.

A Japanese man in his mid thirties appeared on the screen. He wore a naval officer's captains uniform but also bore the seal of the UN. "Miss Orimura, I am Captain Kono and I have your delivery of fifty third generation training IS units. I formally request permission to dock."

"What was the reason for your delay?" Aaron butted in.

"Oh, uh, just some engine trouble, nothing major. We will need to birth for a while to conduct proper repairs though."

"Permission to dock granted," Chifuyu acknowledged "we have cleared out the docks in preparation for your arrival, come on in."

"That you ma'am, we'll be docking in five."

The transmission went dead and Aaron turned to Chifuyu. "Something isn't right here, I know they're ready to mobilize, I just don't know why they haven't done it yet."

"Or you were just wrong, as usual."

"I'm not wrong Chi, can you play back that message?"

Reluctantly Chifuyu nodded to Charlotte who tapped a few buttons and the conversation began to playback. Aaron stared intently at it as the message replayed, there didn't seem to be anything unusual. "One more time."

Chifuyu scowled at him.

"Please Chi."

She sighed and nodded to Charlotte again.

It played for a few moments before something caught Aaron's eye. "Pause it there!" The image froze half way through Captain Kono's explanation of their troubles. "Can you rewind it back to when I ask him about the delay?"

As the message rewound around pointed his finger at the screen. "Watch right there. Play it one more time please." This time as the message played Charlotte and Chifuyu saw the slight shift that Aaron noticed, a shadow from someone off camera and an unmistakable silhouette of them raising a pistol.

"It's a trap!"Aaron shouted bolting from his chair and making for the door. "Chi warm Maya, Charlotte with me!"

Charlotte shot up from her chair and sprinted after Aaron.

"What the hell do you plan on doing without an IS!?" Chifuyu shouted after him, but he was already gone.

* * *

Maya stood with a dozen other teachers all in Rafelle Revives ready to receive the ships at the docks. She had posted three teams of three to cover any approach to the docks that a hostile force could make. One team to the south, one to the north and one above. That left her with three to accept the shipment itself.

The first ship pulled into dock and the cargo hatch slowly slid open. It was dark inside for some reason, she couldn't make out the IS cargo or any crew members for that matter. She took a step towards the ship when Chifuyu's voice came over them com.

"It's a trap, target those ships with everything you've got!"

Before Maya could raise her rifle and blast of brilliant purple energy erupted from the cargo hold and struck the woman next to her. Miss Yamaguchi's upper half vaporized with hardly a sound as the beam ripped right through her shields before impacting a building behind them with a thunderous roar.

The horror only stunned Maya for a brief moment. "Fall back!" she yelled "Fall back! Miss Orimura, evacuate the island!"

* * *

Aaron and Charlotte saw the beam weapon from the top of a hill before the teachers began to scatter and return fire. "My God, "Aaron whispered "an Arbalest; I thought that IS hadn't even reached prototyping."

"What do we do against something like that?" Charlotte asked.

Aaron keyed his com. "Laura did you see that?"

"I am moving to engage now."

"Your AIC is the only thing that's going to stop that monster. Keep in front of it and give the teachers cover."

"Jawohl."

Charlotte had already activated her Rafelle Revive when Aaron turned back to her. "Time for us to get in there, we need to hold them off until Chifuyu can finish the evacuation."

"What are you going to do without an IS?"

Aaron smiled, "Don't think me defenceless." He outstretched his arms and called out "Paladin."

Metal plate armour appeared from nowhere, just like an IS deployment. The armour covered his entire body and a grated helm slid into place over his head. A large war hammer appeared in his right hand and a massive tower shield in his left. "Let's move." he said before taking off towards the fight.

Charlotte was only stunned for a moment before catching up to him. "You have an IS! How?"

"Long story, and it's not technically and IS" Aaron replied. "I can't fly and I have no shields or energy weapons to speak of. Even so, I can hold my own."

As they approached the fight, Aaron analyzed the dire situation. The Arbalest had emerged from the ship, it looked like a larger version of the Schwarzeregan, but with two over the shoulder cannons. Laura was successfully intercepting it's attacks, but more IS units of various designs were streaming out of the ships cargo holds and heading straight for her; they were going to get outgunned fast.

"This is Aaron Harker, I'm taking command. Laura is our only shot at keeping that monstrosity from tearing this island apart, keep the smaller IS units off her at all costs."

Five off the opposing IS units streaked towards Laura who was repositioning to block another attack. "Cover me!" Aaron shouted to Charlotte and leaped into the fray at blinding speed.

The lead unit didn't register his approach in time for the pilot to react. Aaron brought his hammer down on her; shattering the unit's shields, crushing the pilot in the cockpit, and sending her crumpled form to the ground below.

Immediately recognizing the new threat, the four remaining pilots broke off their charge and surrounded Aaron as he landed back on solid ground. Charlotte came from behind a moment latter, slamming one in the back with her shield pierce. The pilot took two solid hits before she was able to break away and turn on Charlotte with a pair of energy swords. Charlotte took a glancing blow before flying backwards out of sight with her combatant hot on her heels.

The three remaining IS units lunged at Aaron simultaneously, each brandishing a sword of their own. He got his shield in front of one, blocked the other with the hilt of his war hammer, and spun to only take a glancing blow from the third; even so he felt it take a chunk out of his armour. Continuing the spin, he swung his hammer in a wide three-sixty arc. Two of his attackers dodged, but the other was clipped and sent sprawling by the force of even a light blow.

The two remaining pilots dove at Aaron in unison. He swung up his shield, bashing one away, but the other hit him in the gut with some sort of overcharged punch. As Aaron was forced back by the blow, he managed to wrap his arm around part of his opponents IS and drag her to the ground with him.

They hit the ground together, but Aaron was ready for it and he rolled quickly onto his foe. The Paladin was an insanely heavy unit and despite the woman's struggling, she couldn't get out from beneath him. Aaron's first punch cracked her shields; he wasn't sure if the second punch killed her, but it certainly knocked her out.

As Aaron staggered back to his feet, he pulled up his readout of the Acadamy IS units. Seven of the thirteen teacher units were inactive and everyone else had sustained serious damage. Just as he was about to call a full retreat, five new IS units came zooming towards them from the Academy. His tracking system identified the lead unit as the Ninjutsu and Aaron was awash with both relief and worry. These were the people he was supposed to be protecting coming to his aid.

"This is Shizuka, we'll cover your retreat, Miss Orimura has most of the student to the underground evacuation pods already. We just need to join them." As she spoke, Shizuka, Ramona, and the other students laid down a barrage of fire opening up space for the teachers to withdraw.

"I need cover, their all over me!" Laura's voice cracked onto the radio.

Aaron took off towards her position in an instant, but he could already tell that the three IS' attacking Laura were stopping her from intercepting the Arbalest's attacks. As the massive IS turned it's cannon to Shizuka's team Aaron shouted "Shizuka, scatter!"

Shizuka didn't even wait to see where the attack was coming from, she activated doppelganger and dashed away. The other pilots broke formation as well, but one was too slow. The massive beam of energy caught one of the young women in the leg, vaporizing it instantly and continuing on to slice a building behind them in two.

The student screamed as she fell like a brick. Ramona caught her just before she hit the ground. "It's alright Amy, I've got you."

The IS' fighting Laura didn't see Aaron coming until it was too late, he slammed on in the side with his war hammer, sending her careening away into the night. Before he could bring his weapon towards the

second, Charlotte hit it square in the chest three times with precision shots. Laura had the third locked in her AIC's grip and took the opportunity to grab her and slam her into the attacker Charlotte had stunned.

A warning light flashed inside Aaron's helmet, _Energy reserves down to 20%, cease operation immediately._ He looked around quickly. While the Arbalest continued to fire, the other attackers were regrouping; it was now or never. "Fall back, everyone fall back!"

* * *

**And now we reach the action bits! If this is what you've been waiting for, thanks for sitting through all the buildup. I wanted the fight to seem chaotic and originally I was going to tell it from everyone's POV, but that got a little confusing. Do you think it worked well this way, or would you have preferred to see bits of Laura, Charlotte, and Maya fighting on their own as well? I may go with that idea for the next chapter, not too sure yet.**

**As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment or constructive criticism.**


	7. Chapter 7 The Retreat

**Chapter VII – Retreat:**

Before the ships had landed, Aaron had insisted that the docks be cleared of all personal, just to be on the safe side. Now that concern was paying off; it gave them precious room to manoeuvre without having to worry about leaving any civilians behind. The downed teachers were another story, even if any of them had survived, there was no way to get to them now.

"Over the hill, abandon the docks!" Aaron shouted.

The Arbalest remained on the docks levelling every structure methodically, but the remaining IS attackers pursued them in an instant.

"Any IS with less then fifty percent damage, provide covering fire, everyone else, pull back to the tree line, then to the main facilty." Aaron ordered.

A formation of five IS units barrelled towards Aaron, Charlotte and Laura, their black armour indistinct in the darkness. He quickly checked his power gauge 17%, Aaron switched his war hammer to minimum power and readied himself to counter-attack.

Fields of gunfire rained down on the attackers and they were forced to break off or risk being torn apart. Aaron caught a quick glimpse of Miss Yamada coordinating the teams covering each other's retreat. Her IS unit was terribly damaged and according to Aaron's sensors it wouldn't stay functional much longer.

The tree line provided light cover for the fleeing IS's and for just a moment Aaron could think of a scale beyond the battle before him. "Chi, we're getting hammered out here, what's the status of the evacuation?"

"Evac ships two and five are away, three and four will be underway in a moment, the last of the stragglers are getting on now. I'm holding my ship here for the rest of you, get to the evac area as fast as you can."

"Roger that, we're on our way." Aaron barely finished speaking when a tree next to him exploded into a shower of splinters.

Charlotte was beside him in a moment and returned fire forcing the attacker back.

"Everyone this way." Maya ordered. "There's a tunnel here that links up with the evacuation centre."

Aaron barely caught sight of her through the dark woods, she and another battered teacher had taken up defensive positions next to a concrete structure of some sort that was built into the side of a hill.

The attacking IS units had completely surrounded the section of forest the Acadamy IS's were hiding in and having had less favourable results in hand to hand, were electing to simply fill the trees with a hail of bullets. Impacts pinged across Aaron's armour and though he would normally think this tactical situation was atrocious, if Maya had a way out they might not see them go until it was too late.

"Over there." Aaron pointed out Maya's position. Laura and Charlotte focused fire on the closest enemies, driving them back before they making it over to Maya in a few quick jumps.

One of the teachers in a badly damaged IS headed through a large steel doorway followed by Ramona carrying an unconscious girl in her still functioning IS as well as another student Aaron didn't recognize. He looked back into the forest to see Shizuka soaking up fire with her doppelganger covered by the two teachers with the least damaged units. Was this really all that was left?

"Get going everyone, I've got a plan to slow them down." Aaron ordered.

The women did a double take but knew that this was no time to argue, they would just have to trust his judgement, after all, he hadn't been wrong yet. Laura went first, followed closely by Maya, Chalotte turned back for a moment, "Be careful." was all she said before taking of down the tunnel as well.

"Everyone's through pull back." Aaron ordered.

The Ninjutsu drifted back slowly, continuing to fake out the attackers as the remaining teachers pulled back into the relative safety of the archway and followed the others.

"Shizuka, do you have any bombs left?" Aaron asked as she finally joined him.

"Four." she replied instantly.

"Good-" an explosion hit right next to them, showering them with dirt and bits of concrete. "Then let's go, and don't forget to close the door behind us."

A small knowing grin crept onto Shizuka's face as she understood. "Got it boss."

The pair entered the archway quickly to see a non descript tunnel heading straight to the heart of the island. The tunnel itself had no distinguishing features except a light every few dozen feet. "Let's move," Aaron said, eager to catch up to those already ahead of them.

As they left Shizuka dropped the last of her bombs behind them. Aaron quickly looked at his gauge again 12%. _Should be just enough power to get off this island. _He thought.

As soon as they were a few hundred meters ahead, an explosion closed the tunnel behind them.

* * *

Chifuyu waited, tapping her foot impatiently atop the Submarine _Rising Dawn_.

In case of emergency the IS Academy was equipped with five submarines capable of evacuating the student body. The concept of an underwater evacuation had been decided do to historically poor performance of IS units underwater.

Explosions continued to sound overhead, the academy, her academy, was being flattened and there was nothing she could do about it. Chifuyu ground her teeth as her clenched fists shook with rage; whoever these people were, whatever they were after it didn't matter. All she cared about now was making sure they would pay for what they had done.

Her rage changed to concern when the first survivors came through the tunnel. Miss Hayashi was first, her Rafelle Revive practically a crumbling wreck around her. She was followed closely Anna Kavinov Russia's representative contender and Ramona, who was leading a trail of blood that wasn't hers. In her arms was the unconscious form of Amy Carter, the representative contender from Canada who was missing the lower half of her right leg.

"Get her to the infirmary! Second deck end of the hall to your right." Chifuyu ordered.

The group rushed by her without so much as a word, sullen expressions covering all their faces.

Laura, Maya, Charlotte and another two teachers arrived next. Laura carried Maya in her arms, her IS having failed in the tunnel, but she remained conscious despite her injuries. "Sorry Ma'am" Maya apologized weakly "there were just so many."

Chifuyu's heart broke just a little more at that sight. "You have nothing to apologize for, none of you do. You all fought bravely and saved the lives of everyone here."

Their expressions didn't change and Chifuyu didn't have time to let them dwell. "Did anyone else make it?"

"Aaron and Shizuka are bringing up the rear, they're the last two." Charlotte answered as they deactivated their IS units and made their way into the submarine.

"Medical is on the second deck, end of the hall to your right." Chifuyu added as they passed her by.

Out of fifteen teachers, five students, and Aaron, barely half had made it back alive. Chifuyu suppressed her boiling rage, saving it for when she would have a chance to strike back. How Aaron had survived the whole ordeal was another mystery in and of itself.

That mystery was quickly answered when he and Shizuka came through the tunnel. Chifuyu was only stunned for a brief moment by the sight of his strange IS, but in truth, part of he had suspected something along those lines.

"There's no one left." Aaron said solemnly as he finally deactivated his IS.

"Aaron... thank you for the warning, you saved a lot of lives today."

"I just wish it had been all of them Chi."

"I know." for a brief moment their heart to heart reminded Chifuyu of the old days, even though the fruits of those labours were now a burning pile of rubble above them. "Don't think it gets you off the hook of explaining yourself though."

"I wouldn't dream of it. We better get going, they could be through that tunnel any minute now." Aaron said, following Shizuka down the hatch into the sub.

Chifuyu followed wordlessly, being the last one to leave the Academy.

* * *

Aaron sat on a bed in the tiny room he had been assigned staring up at the bulkheads. He was actually surprised to have a room to himself at all, space was a premium aboard a submarine, but he supposed as the only man on board it would be simpler this way; if only for propriety's sake.

Chifuyu had given him leave to rest and said they would discuss his IS once she was sure that everyone was safe and away from the island. Even now, he could hardly believe that the Acadamy was actually gone and he wondered what the world leaders would do now. They all had their own IS projects as well as their actual representative's who were incredibly strong IS pilots in and of themselves; he only hoped that at least some of them would work together to track down the attackers. Though he doubted many of the governments would agree on how exactly to go about handling things.

A soft knock on his door interrupted Aaron's thoughts.

"Come in." he answered.

The wheel on his door spun before it slowly creaked open. Charlotte stood in the doorway looking very sullen. "Do you have a moment?" she asked.

"For the first time since I started running I have nothing but moments." Aaron patted his small cot. "I don't really have anything to do until Chifuyu wants to plan our next move."

Charlotte sat down lightly on the cot. There was barely enough room for the two of them and Aaron realized he was going to have to either sleep curled up or with his legs hanging off the end.

When Charlotte didn't speak, Aaron prompted her. "So, what brings you by?"

"I guess... I just didn't want to be alone right now." she replied earnestly. "Laura is like a sister to me, but with Maya in the infirmary she's stepped up as Chifuyu's second in command. I know she's as torn up about what happened today as I am, but I also know she's proud and even glad to work so closely with Chifuyu."

"I can't imagine how hard this has been on all of you." Aaron replied. "I've known this was coming for a long time now, so I was ready... well as ready as anyone can ever be to deal with something like that. But all of you just had this dropped on you."

Charlotte leaned against Aaron's side and rested her head on his shoulder. "Not only did I loose a good student and a few friends today, but also my home. When my mama died, I was taken in by my father and forced to leave the town where I grew up, but the Dunois corporation was never a real home for me; even if I could go back I wouldn't want to. The Academy is... was the only place I belonged."

"It's not the location that matters, it's the people you are with." Aaron replied. "You said that Laura is like a sister to you right? You still have her, and all the students that look to you for guidance. Too often when we loose something precious, we forget to be grateful for the things we still have."

Charlotte smiled just a little. "I guess you're right."

"Besides, at least you fought for your home, all I've ever done is abandon mine." Aaron admitted. "When I didn't like the way the IS project was turning out I blew it up and ran. Then again when I discovered the organization secretly building an IS army, my first instinct was to run. I left my friends and family with out so much as a word, I told myself it was just to protect them, but I'm not sure I really believed it. I just didn't want to risk facing the problem myself."

"Maybe, but if you hadn't done what you did, then none of us would still be alive. You've helped save us all." Softly she wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you for that... from all of us."

"I think-"

"Aaron Harker and Charlotte Dunois to the bridge immediately." Chifuyu's voice came over the ships loudspeaker. "Repeat, Aaron Harker and Charlotte Dunois to the bride immediately."

"Duty calls." Aaron said getting up and stretching. "We can talk later if you'd like."

"I would." Charlotte replied. Despite everything that had happened she managed to feel just a little happy inside.

* * *

The bridge bustled with activity, and as she liked it Chifuyu was at the centre of it. It was cramped, but the half dozen bride officers were tucked neatly into their stations so that others could move around. She turned back to the main door when she heard the clanking of footsteps and saw Aaron and Charlotte both walk in.

"Thank you for coming so quickly." Chifuyu said, "but I'm afraid the news I have is't good. We weren't the only ones hit today."

"What?!" Aaron exclaimed, he had no idea they had the resources to launch more than one strike.

"They attacked the World IS Championships as well, they blew up the entire stadium and nearly everyone was killed."

Aaron and Charlotte were both dumbfounded, nearly all the top ranked IS pilots wiped out. How were they supposed to fight back now. They turned to Laura, hoping it was perhaps some cruel joke, but her melancholy expression confirmed their fears.

"Ichika and the others..." Charlotte managed. "Do we know if... if they made it?"

"We're not finished quite yet, though our situation is dire." Charlotte lit up at the sound of Cecilia's voice.

"We were able to make contact with Miss Alcott when we came up to periscope depth." Chifuyu said. "She was just about to fill us in, but I wanted you both to be here."

They all gathered around the small monitor displaying Cecilia's face. She looked haggard and worn with a few cuts and bruises but nothing too serious. Charlotte couldn't say where she was though, she was likely still in Britan as evidence by the tacky wallpaper behind her, but other than that Charlotte had no idea.

"All right Miss Alcott," Chifuyu said "start at the beginning and don't leave anything out."

* * *

**Hello everyone, sorry for the very long wait for this chapter but life got a little crazy. Though I don't know how often I'll be able to update, this fic is by no means dead and I do plan on finishing it. So thank you all for putting up with me and I'll have the next chapter out for you as soon as I can. **


	8. Chapter 8 Devastation

**Chapter VIII – Devastation:**

As Cecilia's senses returned to her, she realized that she was laying flat on her back. Only a moment ago, she had been battling Ichika for a spot in the semi-finals of the world IS tournament. Had he somehow gotten through her defences and beaten her?

The air was thick with dust and smoke, but _Blue Tears__'_ air filtration system kept everything breathable. It didn't stop her from noticing the heat however, it wasn't hot enough to burn her lungs but it was certainly uncomfortable. Her shield indicator flashed at 56/400; she hadn't lost the fight, but why wasn't another attack coming?

Cecilia pulled herself up and when she looked around she had her answer. The entire stadium was a flaming, smoking ruin.

Then she registered the smell, the terrible odour of burning flesh and hair. Cecilia's stomach revolted in explosive fashion and her lunch sprayed across the remains of the arena floor. A small part of her cringed at how unladylike it was, but the rest of her was more concerned with what had happened.

"-_ilia... Cecilia, are you out there_?" Ichika's voiced crackled to life over her com.

She wiped the vomit from her mouth and spat out another wad, before replying. "Ichika? I'm here, what happened?"

"I don't know, but whatever caused the explosion, our IS's protected us, at least somewhat. Come find me, I need you over here, I'm looking for Houki and the others."

In all the chaos, Cecilia had almost forgotten that her friends had been in the stands to watch the match. The _Byakushiki's _location flashed on her heads up display and she headed towards him. The sensation of flying, even for a moment, nearly brought the vomit back but she managed to hold it down for the few seconds it took to reach Ichika.

The stands were a bloody mess. People and parts of people were scattered everywhere, most dead, a few still alive. Some of them screamed in pain or for help, but Ichika ignored them all and kept digging through the rubble for Houki.

"Check over there!" he shouted pointing to another row of ruined stands.

Cecilia just stood there for a moment. The _Byakushiki _looked like it had taken at least as much damage _Blue Tears_ and though Ichika looked banged up, emotionally he seemed even worse. _What if Houki didn't make it? _Cecelia wondered._I__f she __was really__ dead... __would__ Ichika be able to __survive__ that?_

"Hurry up!" Ichika shouted back at her.

Cecilia snapped back to reality and floated over to where he had pointed. _Blue Tears_ picked up pulses in the rubble, other survivors. She looked for the nearest one, it was located under a fallen pillar only a few feet away. Even with _Blue Tears_ badly damaged, Cecelia lifted the pillar with ease and tossed it into what was once the battle area; somewhere she was sure there were no people.

The man beneath was bloodied and unconscious but still alive. He had dark brown hair with streaks of bloodied red running through it and only looked to be in his late teens. What gave him away as a fan was the now torn _Byakushiki_ t-shirt he wore.

"Ce... Cecilia?"

She looked up from the unconscious man, and searched for the familiar voice. Only a few more feet away she saw a hand sticking out of the rubble, waving slowly back and forth at her.

Cecilia jumped up and carefully stepped over the unconscious man. She delicately yet quickly tore the rubble off to reveal the form of Tatenashi sprawled out below it, badly cut and bruised but still conscious.

"Tatenashi, are you all right, we thought you'd died." Cecilia said helping her sit up.

"Don't you remember?" she said with a weak smile. "I'm immortal."

Cecilia rolled her eyes and hit her com line. "Ichika, I've found Tatenashi over here."

The was a loud crash and sliding of rubble, then a moment later, Ichika was by her side. "Tatenashi, where's Houki?" he demanded.

She motioned weakly upwards with her head to what remained of the seat tier above them. "We were sitting up there, the explosion knocked me down here."

Ichika was up on the next level in a single bound, shouting. "Houki I'm coming!"

Tatenashi grabbed Cecelia's arm. "Kanzashi left her seat before the bombs went off. She's still out there somewhere."

"We'll be sure to find her as soon as we get doctors called for you." Cecilia replied.

"Cecilia get up here, I've found Houki and Rin, they're both unconscious." Ichika shouted.

She was about to join Ichika when a loud crack echoed over the din of the fires and shifting rubble. Then another, then several more. Gunshots began sounding all around them.

Cecilia looked to the top of the stands, magnified by _Blue Tear's_ twenty times zoom and used her thermal sensors to see through the smoke. Dozens of figures sifted through the rubble and every so often spotted a survivor and executed them.

"Ichika, we need to move." Cecelia warned.

"Houki and Rin are badly hurt, if we move them it could make things worse."

"I know, but we are in no shape to fight right now. If we don't move them, we could all die."

Several more gun shots went off in the time it took Ichika to reply. "Fine, I'll grab these two, you take Tatenashi."

"Wait..." Tatenashi begged, trying to stand. "We can't leave... without... my sister."

"We don't have a choice, we will have to come back for her later." Cecelia replied.

"If you leave her behind... I will never... forgive you."

Cecelia looked around desperately, as if by sheer dumb luck she would find Kanzashi laying somewhere nearby, but to avail. "I'm sorry, but we have to leave."

"Damn it... no." Tatenashi squirmed as Cecelia picked her up under one arm, but in her injured state she could do nothing to resist.

"Are you ready?" Ichika asked. "They're getting closer."

"Almost." Cecelia leaned over and picked up the unconscious man that she had lifted rubble off of earlier under her other arm. At least she could save one other person. "Ready."

"You know this country better, where are we headed?"

"If these people are capable of an attack on this scale, we won't be safe at a regular hospital." Cecelia marked a location nearly eighty kilometres away. "I have a doctor friend who leaves there, he should be able to help us."

Another gunshot, even closer now. The smoke wouldn't hide them much longer.

"On three." Ichika said. "One..." Cecelia tightened her grip on her two unwilling passengers. "Two..." She crouched down, ready to take off. "Three!" They shot into the air together and were over the edge of the stadium before a single shot could be fired against them.

In the London streets below, thousands of people watched the flaming Colosseum with a shocked awe. Briefly Cecelia wondered if it had always been this way, if people were like this watching the Hindenburg or the World Trade Centre; knowing that something truly terrible was happening but not understanding the full scope of it.

"Now that we're clear, we should slow down so we don't injure..." Ichika paused. "I've got a contact coming in fast."

Cecelia barely had time to look up before something slammed into Ichika. He fell like a brick, but managed to hold Houki and Rin to his chest and land on his back. Warning indicators on Cecilia's heads up display showed critical damage to the _Byakushiki_, any more and she doubted Ichika would be able to fly even himself to safety.

The treat indicator tracking the hostile target showed it veering off and swooping back around. Cecelia used the time to land beside Ichika, set down her passengers and brought out _Blue Pierce._ People in the street scattered at the sight of them and Cecelia hoped that they would find adequate shelter in time.

Her target came back around, soaring low through the streets. It was so fast she didn't have time to read the scans of the unit that _Blue Tears_ was sending her, simply letting instinct take over instead. She tracked the target and fired, as simple as taking a breath.

The first round hit dead centre causing the attacker to falter and slow, Cecelia adjusted. Another round, eight centimetres off centre, her target spun but regained control, pulling herself into a straight dive to try and gain speed; now Cecelia had her. Three more rounds in rapid succession, all hits with less then a four centimetre error; the hostile IS hit the ground hard, pinwheeling across the now vacant street and stopping face down only a few meters from Cecelia's feet.

She looked back at Ichika, but he was already pulling himself up and checking on their unconscious friends. The _Byakushiki's_ shield strength showed at 3/400.

The IS on the ground before her was so badly damaged that Cecelia was surprised it hadn't gone into emergency shutdown mode. The unit itself looked like an old _Rafelle Revive, _but there were a few ruined components she didn't recognize. With _Blue Pierce_ at the ready she put her foot under the unit and flipped it over.

The woman inside looked young, perhaps as young a Cecelia had been when she joined the IS Academy, and though she was covered in the blood of dozens of lacerations, she was clearly of Caucasian descent. The woman's eyes fluttered and Cecelia pressed the barrel of _Blue Pierce_ to the woman's chest. "Who are you, who orchestrated all this?"

Venom was all the was in the eyes that stared up at Cecelia. "You think you're so perfect Cecelia Alcott; you and all the IS representatives." the woman spat a wad of blood at Cecelia, but it didn't quite reach her. "People all over this world are dying to war, famine, and disease. You hold in your hand the power to save them and you do nothing but fulfil your own vain desires." she coughed up more blood, spilling across her face as her words began to gurgle. "See you... in... Hell..."

A red bar flashed across Cecelia's heads up display, indicating that her target was dead.

_How did this woman think she could save people by helping to murder everyone at the championships?_ Cecelia wondered. There was no time to think about it were likely to follow, they had to leave right away.

"Ichika, grab Houki and Rin, we've got to move."

"Right." he said, gently picking them both up once again.

Cecelia grabbed Tatenashi and the man who had been lucky enough to be sitting near them. "Fast and low." she said.

Ichika nodded and the pair rocketed away to potential safety.

* * *

Adam Atkinson was watching a live report of the IS tournament attack when his doorbell rang, then rang again and again and again. "Hang on a titch would you!" he shouted. _What could be so important during such a terrible event. Could someone from work have showed up even though it was his day off?_

He opened the door to see Cecelia bruised and bloodied with an equally worn Japanese man and four unconscious people laying on his walkway. Adam opened his mouth but words would not come, then closed it again.

"Good afternoon Adam," Cecelia said with a weak smile. "Is that open invitation for tea still on the table?"

* * *

**So that is the flip side of what happened during the Academy attack. **

**The identity and motivations of the attackers are going to be revealed next chapter, but I wanted to hint a little bit of it in here. Do you think Cecilia's conversation with the shot down pilot did that well?**

**As always thank you so much for reading, and a double thank you to those who comment. **


	9. Chapter 9 The Face of the Enemy

**Chapter IX – The Face of the Enemy:**

"Adam is looking at their wounds now. I won't know how they're doing until he's done." Cecelia said, finishing her tale.

The entire bridge was silent. Some of the crew knew at least one of the Academy's former pilots and those that didn't at least knew of them.

"I want to know the moment you have confirmation on their conditions." Chifuyu ordered.

"Yes ma'am, of course." Cecelia replied.

"Now, where is Ichika, I need to speak with him?"

"He hasn't left Houki's side since we got her here. I can go-"

The line filled with static, cutting off the call.

"What happened? Get her back!" Chifuyu ordered.

"Something is overriding the signal." One of the officers said. "Another signal is being forced over it, it's flooding every channel."

The monitor that they were using to talk to Cecelia only a moment ago now showed a middle aged woman with long dirty blonde hair that ran down below what the camera could see. She wore a simple flowing red dress and had no make up on, yet still looked quite beautiful.

"Greetings everyone, I am is Abigail Winters." As she spoke text in dozens of different languages scrolled across the bottom of the screen, subtitling her speech.

"By now you have all no doubt heard stories of the terrorist attacks against both the IS Academy and the grounds where the world championships were being held. I was responsible for those attacks."

Everyone on the bridge noticeably tensed, though several of them had already suspected that this was the case.

"While the loss of life is indeed regrettable, it would have been worse to simply do nothing and allow the world to continue on the course that was laid before us. Too long had the tool for ensuring stability been used for the amusement of the wealthy, while the poor struggled to get by. Too long had the device to end all war languished in gladiatorial combat. Too long had Tabane Shininino dictated the fate of our world and hid when all we wanted were simple answers. No more! I have unlocked the secrets of IS technology and used them to overthrow Tabane's dictatorial directing of our futures."

Abigail folder her hands in front of her and rested her chin on them while the information soaked in. "I have created an army of IS pilots to take the place of those lost today. Fear not; for they are not conquerors, but peacekeepers. They are already stationed all across the world and have the pursuit of peace and justice to govern them. As of this moment, all your wars are over. You will cease all conflict with each other immediately and begin to disarm your boarders within the next twenty-four hours, or my IS pilots will do it for you."

"As for those criminals that choose to conduct smaller crimes, know that my IS units are in every country. They can see through walls, amplify sound from miles away, and kill you from twice as far. If you commit a crime, we will find you, and you will be punished."

Abigail sat back in a black leather chair and folded her hands into her lap. "From this day forth, let no human cause harm to any other human, and let no body of government conspire against another. Today and forever after, we will have pace." A warm smile crossed her face and the lighting in the room shifted slightly, making her look almost like a benevolent deity. "Until we speak again, sleep soundly everyone." Abigail nodded her head to the entire world, then the screen went dark.

"Did she just... take over the world?" Charlotte asked.

"Not as long as we're still around." Chifuyu said and turned to one of the bridge officers. "Helm, how long until we reach our destination?"

"About an hour ma'am."

"Charlotte, Laura, go fill the students in on everything." Chifuyu said "We're going to need everyone able to operate an IS in the fight to challenge our new dictator."

"Jawol mentor." Laura saluted and left the bridge followed closely by her best friend.

Aaron turned to follow but Chifuyu stopped him. "We still need to talk." she said.

Chifuyu motioned for him to follow and lead Aaron into an adjacent room with a small round table and six chairs. It looked like a very slimmed down version of the meeting room back at the Academy. She motioned for Aaron to sit and he obliged.

"Before we get started," Aaron said. "I have a question for you. How did you get the Academy evacuated so quickly. With nearly four hundred students, it couldn't have been easy to corral them all and make sure that no one was left behind.

Chifuyu sat down across from him and met his gaze. "While I did have my doubts, I wanted to believe you. I figured it was better to be safe then sorry, so I ran an evacuation drill before the ships arrived. If you were wrong, I would have played it off as a simple test, but since you were right, everyone was nearly ready to be evacuated by the time we were attacked."

Aaron smiled. "You always did plan five steps ahead Chi. Thank you, for trusting me."

"You're welcome. Now I want to know exactly what you were running around in out there."

"I told you before that I was working on a project to adapt the IS to be compatible with male pilots." Aaron began. "I also told you that I hadn't succeeded in adapting the IS."

"Actually if I remember correctly, you avoided answering directly."

"Well that's because I did succeed, at least partially. The IS core produces an insane amount of energy, I don't know how they don't blow up half a country when they are destroyed but it should be considered a miracle. Anyway, there is something in the main power draw that is not compatible with the Y chromosome."

"We worked at it for years but no matter how we altered the device or the subjects, we couldn't get the main power draw functioning. So it hit on the idea to use a work around, you see, while the main power draw that operates things like anti-gravity, and energy weapons rejects the Y chromosome, the subsystems did not. While that power pales in comparison to the full draw of an IS, it does make a unit operational."

"The problem is that mass production is currently not feasible, the power draw is immense and unless the unit is designed to very specific specs, they are inferior to even second generation IS models. Why waste one of the few cores you can get your hands on for a male pilot when you can get much more bang for your buck from a female."

"So then how did you get them to give you a core?" Chifuyu asked.

"They didn't, this one is mine. Core zero-zero-two, the one that you and Tabs thought I destroyed."

"So you stole it and have been working on it in secret this whole time."

"Hey, it doesn't classify as stealing if I helped make it. You had the first core and I kept the second, I wasn't going to walk away from all that with no way to change things."

"Well you're going to have plenty of chances to change the world now. Even if your IS is technically an inferior model, with most veteran pilots dead or missing, I'll need you on the front lines."

"In a situation like this, there's no place I'd rather be."

* * *

Shizuka shifted restlessly in her new bunk next to her sister Mei, and Ramona. "When do you think they're going to tell us who those people were?" she asked.

"We'll know when we need to know." Ramona replied.

"Whoever they were, they just showed up and blew up our home. I'd say we damn well need to know." Shizuka retorted.

"Arguing about it won't help," Mei insisted. "They'll tell us when they tell us, there's nothing we can do about it."

"Mei's right, just relax."

"Realx? Relax!" Shizuka fumed "Have you forgotten that Amy lost most of her leg, and that Leticia didn't even make it back!"

Ramona slammed he hands on the bed, the dull thud not having the deafening effect she would have wanted. "I was the one that carried Amy back here and don't you forget it!" she pointed her finger at Shizuka for emphasis. "I want answers too, but this is bigger than us. We need to trust that our teachers know what they're doing and that when they need our help they'll ask for it."

"They didn't ask for us to rescue them and they certainly needed that." Shizuka retorted.

"And look what happened, Leticia is dead and Amy's not getting out of the hosp-"

"So what, it's my fault then?!"

"Stop it both of you!" Mei pushed the pair, who were now nose to nose, away from each other. "It's no one's fault, you did what you thought was right. If you hadn't, the teachers might have all been killed."

Ramona sighed. "I didn't mean to blame you Shizuka. Mei's right, it could have been a lot worse if we didn't step in. I just think that the teachers were trying to protect us."

"We did make a difference in that fight, which means that we do actually have something to contribute. We're going to need-"

The room feel silent and the people who had taken a passive interest in their conversation turned as the hatch to the room opened. Laura walked in, followed closely by Charlotte; their expressions both foretold grim news.

All the students listened intently as Charlotte and Laura told them everything from Aaron's warning to recent proclamation by Abigail. When they finished, a hushed silence fell over the room for nearly a minute until Shizuka raised her hand.

"Yes Shizuka?" Charlotte said.

The whole room turned to regard her as she spoke. "You want us to fight right? With most of the world IS competitors dead, you'll need every IS at your disposal, and that means us."

"As much as we hate to ask, we're at war now. If we're going to stop Abigail from controlling the whole world with her IS army we are going to need you."

Ramona slowly stood up then saluted Laura. "I will stand by your side mentor."

Shizuka stood next to her best friend. "Don't think I'm letting Ramona run off with you alone. Besides, these ass whole's owe us a new island; I'm in."

The rest of the room rose to join them, all cheering for their teachers and all having no idea what they had just signed up for.

* * *

"Approaching co-accordance ma'am." One of the bridge officers reported.

"Bring up external camera one." Chifuyu ordered.

A small computer screen folded up from Chifuyu's arm rest and displayed a murky image of the waters outside the submarine.

"Lights." Chifuyu said.

The dim murk turned into a sligtly brighter murk and Chifuyu was able to make out a structure in front of them embedded into the sea floor.

Aaron peered over her shoulder at the image. It took him a few seconds to make out exactly what it was, and when he did, he couldn't help but roll his eyes. "That's Tab's facility alright, she's the only one crazy enough to build a giant carrot at the bottom of the ocean."

"We're in international waters now and deeper then most other submarines can go, where else do you think a person the entire world is looking for could hide?" Chifuyu replied.

"Fair enough."

"Besides, even if someone did find it, where is the entrance?" she asked.

Aaron squinted at the image before them. The giant carrot station had no visible docking bays or hatches, it looked perfectly symmetrical. "Okay, I give up. Where?"

"Signal the other subs to hold back," Chifuyu ordered. "Helm ahead one eighth, course eleven by seventeen; any deviation and we'll be targeted by the stations automated defences."

"Aye ma'am."

As the submarine approached, a section of the giant carrot that looked solid only a moment before, opened up and allowed the submarine inside. The area beyond looked as though it had been designed exclusively for the submarine and they rose quickly to a large pressurized dome shaped room that kept the water at bay.

"Maintain this position until I return." Chifuyu ordered. She got up from the captain's chair and patted Aaron on the shoulder. "All ashore that's going ashore; assuming that you're not going to blow it up of course."

"I don't suppose we'll ever get past that will we?" Aaron asked, falling in step behind Chifuyu.

"We will not." she replied curtly.

There was nothing left to say on the matter, Aaron was surprised he had gleamed as much trust out of Chifuyu as he had. Regardless, he was eager to see Tabane again; despite all of their differences, if there was any duo he would put money on to accomplish... virtually anything it was Chi and Tabs.

As Chifuyu turned the wheel on the exit hatch Aaron noticed that they were alone. "Is no one else coming?"

The hatch unsealed with a hiss and Chifuyu pushed it open. "There is a lot of secret IS tech literally just laying around in here. Other then myself, you're the only person in the world who's seen even a fraction of it. I figured we could keep it to ourselves; for old times sake." she offered a hand down to Aaron.

He hesitated for only a brief moment before taking her hand. "Old times..." he mumbled as she pulled him up and out of the sub.

* * *

**So, now you know exactly who they are up against. Finally, right? :) There were a lot of ways I thought about handling the scene after Abigail is introduced. I really wanted to get into all the character's opinions on who she was and what they though of what she was doing and her motives behind it. However, having that conversation between all of them at once on the bridge kept coming out very clunky and forced. So I thought it made sense for Chifuyu to keep them all focused on work and that would also let me get to their own thoughts on the matter in the upcoming chapters. **

**As for Abigail herself, I wanted a villain who was sympathetic; someone who did the wrong things for the right reasons. I hope that came across. **

**Last but not least, originally I was going to have Tabane in this chapter but it wound up being a bit longer then I anticipated so you'll all get to see how this situation is effecting her next time. **


	10. Chapter 10 Survivors

**Chapter X – Survivors:**

Cecilia stared blankly at her computer as the message from Abigail finished and the screen went dark. _Was it really possible?_ She thought. _Did Abigail just take over the world in a single day?_

Slowly she turned from the computer to find Adam standing in the doorway, also looking dumbstruck.

"How much of that did you hear?" She asked.

"Almost all of it." he replied. "So I guess I'm harbouring fugitives now, aren't I?"

"If this Abigail really has a lock down on the entire world, then yes. If they find us here, who knows what they will do to you. We should leave right away," she tried to push past Adam but he put out a hand to stop her.

"Most of your friends can't be moved Cecilia; besides, even if they could, without some kind of medical treatment they would still likely die. As scared as I am, my Hippocratic oath demands that I keep you all here."

Cecilia hung her head. "I'm sorry that I got you mixed up in all of this."

"It's okay." he put his arms gently around her. "I've been trying to get you to come over for nearly a year now. At least I finally got my wish."

Cecelia couldn't help but blush a little. She stuttered on a reply, then quickly decided to change the subject. "How are my friends doing?" she asked.

"That is originally what I came here to tell you." he said motioning for her to follow as he made his way to the two bedrooms where he had set up makeshift infirmaries. "Tatenashi had a lot of cuts and bruises and she lost a lot of blood, which is what caused her to pass out. Miraculously she didn't break a single bone and she should be conscious any time now and able to move as soon as her body replenishes the lost blood. The young man you grabbed has a broken wrist and a concussion, it's not too serious so he should wake up, and when he does, he will be fine."

Adam paused before continuing. "You're other two friends are in much worse shape."

Cecelia took a deep breath and prepared herself for the worst. "How bad?" she asked.

"Rin's left arm is broken in two places, but I manged to set and splint it. However, she also took a bad blow to the back, I won't know the full extent of the damage until she wakes up and I can run some tests. All I can to for now is keep her straight and hope it helps."

Cecelia put her hand to her mouth. _How bad could things get for Rin? _she wondered.

"And Houki?" she asked.

"She took the worst of it I'm afraid, she has several broken bones, some of which I've set, except for what I think are a pair of broken ribs which I can't do much about without a hospital." Adam paused, summoning up the strength to finish his report. "She also took a serious blow to the head; it's a miracle that she didn't die from it... but... the truth is; I'm not sure if she's actually going to wake up at all."

Cecilia had to steady herself to stay standing. She had expected bad news, but she hadn't truly been prepared for it all.

"The fact of the matter is, the two of them need a real hospital, as soon as possible; I can't do much I can do any more for them here."

Cecelia took a deep breath and pulled herself together, they were relying on her now, she had to be strong. "Do you know anywhere safe we could take them?"

"I'll make a few calls to associates of mine. I don't know if Abigail's people are searching the hospitals, but it should be easy enough to find out; it's not like they would miss an IS flying by."

Cecilia nodded and Adam headed into the other room as she continued down the carpeted hallway. She stopped before the first makeshift hospital room and quietly looked inside. The young man she had rescued was still unconscious, but as she turned to look at the other bed, she noticed that Tatenashi was gone.

Panic filled her for a moment before she remembered that Adam had just checked up on them. Tatenashi couldn't have gotten far.

Cecilia sprinted down the hallway and around the corner, out into the living room. Tatenashi was using the back of Adam's sofa for balance as she limped determinately towards the front door.

"Hold it right there!" Cecilia shouted, vaulting over the couch and landing in front of Tatenashi. "You're in no shape to be getting out of bed, let alone going outside."

The icy glare Cecilia received in response sent a chill shooting down her spine.

"You left my sister behind." The words were like venom pouring from Tatenashi's mouth. "Move aside, or I will go through you."

"You don't have all the information and you're only going to hurt yourself. We'll find Kanzashi, but first-"

Tatenashi's right hook caught Cecelia completely off guard, sending her sprawling back over the couch and onto the floor.

"I'll rest when I'm dead," Tatenashi said as she opened the front door.

Cecilia wiped a streak of blood from her lip. "I thought you were immortal."

"Exactly," she replied with a small grim smile and left the house.

Adam came running around the corner a moment later. "Is everything alright?" he asked.

"Well, you have one less patient to worry about now," Cecilia said, getting back to her feet. "Tatenashi has decided that she doesn't need our help."

"Like hell she doesn't, she'll get herself killed." Adam stormed towards the front door, but Cecilia caught him by the sleeve of his shirt.

"Adam, if she was going to listen to reason, I wouldn't have been on the floor." Cecilia sighed. "As hard as it is, I think we have to let her go it alone... for now."

She could tell Adam still wanted to go after her, but he was an intelligent man who knew that if Cecilia couldn't stop her, there was no way he would. "Come on," she said "I'm going go check on your other patients, and you should get back on the phone and find them a safe hospital."

"Right." Adam replied.

Cecilia walked sombrely into the other makeshift infirmary. Rin was still unconscious in a bed with some kind of makeshift device Adam had put underneath her to keep her back straight. Across from her, Houki lay in the other bed with Ichika by her side. Cecilia could have sworn that Ichika hadn't moved a muscle since they had lain Houki down in that bed.

She gently put her hand on Ichika's shoulder. Cecilia had expected him to jump, but he remained stock still. "Anything?" she asked, even though she knew what his answer would be.

Without moving anything but his lips, Ichika replied. "No, nothing yet."

"Houki is one of the strongest and most determined people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. If anyone can pull through this, it's her."

"I know... she will," Ichika replied. "And I'll let you know when she does."

Cecilia stood behind him for a minute just staring at Houki's still form, willing her eyes to open with all her might. Soon, simply staring at her began to weigh heavy on Cecilia's soul; she couldn't imagine what Ichika was going through right now.

"Call me if you need anything." she said as she finally had enough gloom.

Ichika didn't respond, but she knew he had heard her.

Cecilia headed back into the living room to find Adam hanging up the phone with a grim look on his face.

"More bad news I take it?" she asked.

"I've called every hospital I've worked for and most of my friends in the medical field. There has been an IS making periodic sweeps past all the hospitals in the city, making sure that they are not taking in any women from the tournament grounds."

"Damn!" Cecilia swore and slammed her hand on the back of Adam's sofa. She thought for a moment, "Perhaps I could destroy this IS, then we could get them treatment?"

"Would that really help?" Adam asked. "I mean if the IS checking hospitals is targeted, wouldn't they know that is where we are going?"

"You're right." Cecilia mused. "That wouldn't work... though it does give me another idea. Do what you can to get them ready to be moved, I have to make a call."

* * *

Ichika held Houki right hand with his left and cradled a small box in his right. With a flick of his thumb, he popped the top revealing a shining diamond ring. "I was going to give this to you at the end of the tournament." he said, a tear running down his cheek. "Just over two years now... the happiest days of my life." He gripped Houki's hand tight. "I wish I'd realized sooner, I wish I hadn't been such an idiot for so long."

He snapped the box shut and smacked himself in the face. "I can't talk like that." he chided himself. "You're going to get better." he squeezed her hand again. "You have to get better." He leaned forward and gently kissed Houki's forehead. "I love you so much." he whispered.

"Ichika?"

His heart nearly leaped from his chest at the sound. Ichika leaned back and looked at Houki, but she hadn't moved a muscle.

"Ichika?" the voice groaned again from behind him.

He looked behind him to see that Rin's eyes had fluttered open and she was trying in vain to sit up. "What... happened?" she rasped. "Why is my arm killing me?"

She coughed hard and rough. "Also... thirsty."

Ichika shot up quickly to check on his childhood friend, but stopped when he reached arms length. He was still holding Houki's hand and she still wasn't moving. Ichika paused for just a moment before he gently placed Houki's hand back at her side. "I'll be right back." he whispered.

He quickly grabbed a glass of water from a nearby nightstand and brought it over on Rin's right side, so she could use her good arm. "Take it easy Rin." Ichika said, passing her the glass.

She took a slow cautious sip, then another deeper one before downing the entire glass. "Thanks," she said. "So, where are we, and how did we get here?"

"We're staying with a friend of Cecelia's who's a doctor, you all got hurt pretty bad when the stadium exploded."

"Exploded?"

"I don't know too many of the details, but the academy was attacked as well, and some crazy woman is taking over the world with an IS army."

"What?! Well what are we doing just laying around? Let's get going."

"Rin, you're not in any condition to fight." Ichika insisted. "You're arm's broken, Adam didn't even think you'd wake up as soon as you did."

"Come on Ichika, you know I'm tougher than this." Rin insisted. "Now get off my legs and let me up."

"Uhh... Rin, I'm not on your legs." Ichika said, standing up.

"What? Well then what's..." Rin shifted awkwardly with a puzzled expression on her face. She shifted again, but didn't move much. Panic started to show on her face as she through back the sheets with her good arm.

She grabbed her right leg, then her left. "I..." she stuttered. "I can't feel.. my legs... I can't feel my legs!"

* * *

**So, yeah, that just happened. I've been doing a bit or research into Spinal Cord Injuries and hopefully I can portray it well enough. If I mess something up, please let me know.**

**I know I said that Tabane would be in this chapter, but then I realized that I needed to catch up with Cecilia and the others before I could move forward. Next chapter I swear.**


	11. Chapter 11 Tabane

**Chapter XI – Tabane:**

Aaron and Chifuyu looked around from the top of the submarine. The room was metallic in colour with minimal ceiling lighting and a platform over the water that led to three thick metal doors.

"Honestly I expected a bit more fanfare," Aaron admitted. "This is Tabs after all."

"Just wait for it," Chifuyu said. "We're not that lucky."

As they stepped off the sub and onto the platform, a green beam shot out from the wall and ran across them. Aaron instantly recognized it as a high intensity scan. A moment later a familiar squealing woman's voice filled the room. "Chiiiiiiiiii Chaaaaaaaaannnnnn!"

The light coalesced into a single shape, that looked just like Tabane, metal rabbit ears and all. "Chi Chan, you finally came to visit! I'm sorry I couldn't come to greet you myself, but I must be warped up in something super duper important!"

Chifuyu rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Told you so," she said.

"Now don't be like that Chi Chan. Turn that frown upside down!" Tabane's hologram flung it's arms up with enthusiasm. "Ha ha, just kidding, I can't really see you since this message is prerecorded; but you were totally frowning weren't you?"

Aaron couldn't help but smirk.

"Now I know you," the hologram continued. "You want to do whatever you need right away. Well, just so you know, wherever I am in the world right now, I've been alerted that you're here and I'm going to come back and say hi as soon as I'm done whatever amazing thing it is that I'm doing." The hologram steeped back and took a more neutral pose that didn't seem much like Tabane at all. "Until then, just ask my hologram anything and it will help you out. See you soon Chi Chan."

The hologram remained frozen in a basic standing pose and Aaron figured it was simply waiting for input. "So which way do we go?" he asked.

"Where is the master control room located?" Chifuyu asked the hologram.

The hologram snapped to attention immediately at Chifuyu's words. "Right down to business, you're so direct Chi Chan. The master control room is this way." The hologram trotted towards the door on the left and waved her hand. A moment later the grinding sound of metal on metal filled the room and the door slid open.

A long hallway stretched out before them with dozens of pipes and tubes lining the walls and running under the grated floor. "I guess it doesn't take all that much to maintain a facility with only one inhabitant doesn't it?" Aaron asked rhetorically.

"I'm sorry," the hologram replied. "My responses are limited, you must ask the right questions."

The next door slid open to reveal a room with thousands of IS components littered everywhere. Aaron only recognized about a third of them, everything else he could only guess as to their function. Almost every IS he had ever heard of looked to be disassembled in this room in one stage or another.

"Main research lab number one; this is where the magic starts. I tinker around for a while then move on to prototyping in lab two." the hologram recited.

"Is lab two on the way to the main control room?" Aaron asked.

"Yes indeedie." the hologram replied.

"Where are you?" Chifuyu interrupted. "The real you."

The hologram paused for a moment before replying. "Tabane Shinonono is currently located in lab two."

"Wait, she's actually here?" Aaron exclaimed. "Why hasn't she come to meet us herself?"

"I don't know why I am unable to meet you. It'll probably be a fun surprise when you find out." the hologram said.

"Let's go." Chifuyu motioned for Aaron to follow and swiftly made her way through the clutter to a door at the other end of the room.

Aaron paused for only a brief moment. If even half of the IS units in this room could be made operational, they would have a decent fighting force on their hands, perhaps enough to take the fight to Abigail, wherever she actually was; that was of course assuming that they had cores to power them. It could wait though, first they needed some answers from the resident genius.

He quickly joined Chifuyu who was waiting for the security door to open, tapping her foot impatiently. "Do you think she even knows that we're here?" Aaron asked. "She does get lost in her work a lot."

"That could be, she might not even know what's going on yet," Chifuyu replied. "All the docking procedures are fully automated. Either way, I'm sure she'll be surprised to see you."

The door opened to reveal a dimly lit room with more IS components scattered about, but far less in then the previous one. Of the four functioning lights, one of them was flickering and in need of changing. Aaron wondered offhandedly why Tabane didn't have some king of automated light changing machine, it seemed like something she would make because she couldn't be bothered to change a light bulb herself.

He also wondered if the computer had been wrong, Tabane hadn't come bursting out to greet them after all. Aaron was so lost in thought that he walked right into a stopped Chifuyu. He expected a punch, or at least a yell for his clumsiness, but what he heard was not what he expected.

"Tabane!" Chifuyu yelled with more concern then Aaron had ever heard in her voice. She took off like a shot across the large room and Aaron stepped to the side to get a look past her at what she saw.

Slouched in a corner of the lab, was Tabane Shinonono, in a state Aaron would never have imagined to see her in. Five empty bottles of saki were scatted about and she held a sixth, nearly empty one cradled in her right arm. Dried vomit covered most of her body and the imitate area. From Aaron's angle, she looked unconscious... possibly dead.

Just like Chifuyu, it took Aaron a moment to recover from the sight of something so contradictory to what he expected that by the time he was also running across the room, Chifuyu had already reached Tabane. She checked her friend's pulse first and let out a sigh of relief, realizing that she was still alive.

"Her heart rate seems steady, breathing shallow, but regular. It looks like she's just unconscious." Chifuyu reported.

"I guess she heard about what happened already; never would have expected this though." Aaron replied.

The crack came before Aaron had even seen Chifuyu move. Tabane's head shot to the side, a bright red hand print starting to form on her left cheek. It took a moment, but her eyes fluttered open. Tabane moaned, then wretched up a stream of bile.

Chifuyu jumped to the side to avoid the torrent, before stepping in close to her friend again once the expulsion had stopped.

"Chhhi Chhhhan?" Tabane slurred groggily, her tongue hanging sloppily half out of her mouth. "And Aaron?" She chuckled humorlessly. "I didn't thhhink I could drink enough thu acthhhually kill mythelf, lookth like I wath wrong."

"You idiot." Chifuyu glared at the meek form of her friend. "I'm not dead, and neither is Aaron, much to my surprise. You're still alive too. We came to get your help, but you're obviously in no condition to provide it."

"You're really here?" Tabane asked. "And... Houki?"

"The last we heard, she was alive, but she had been hurt pretty bad. She's safe for the moment, Ichika and Alcott are taking care of her."

Tabane visibly relaxed, though the fact that meant settling more into a pool of vomit almost made Aaron loose his lunch too. "I thhought I'd gotten you all killed...it'th good... at leath... thafe." Tabane trialled off as she passed out again."

Chifuyu sighed and looked back at Aaron. "Well this is about as bad as it can get I suppose."

"We'll have to run things without her, for a little while at least." he said.

"Yeah, I know. I'll get her cleaned up, you get everyone disembarked and start finding work for them. Get the other subs pulled into dock as well, there should be more ports on other parts of the facility. I'm going to get the resident genius cleaned up."

"Alright." Aaron agreed, heading over to the communications terminal.

Chifuyu picked Tabane up as gently as she could manage and slung her over her shoulder. "I'll be back soon." she said as she left the room.

* * *

Chifuyu tried to ignore the vomit that was slowly seeping into the back of her shirt as she carried Tabane's now semi-conscious form into a large bathroom.

"You have got the be the dumbest smart person in the world." She said while carefully lifting Tabane over her shoulder and gently setting her in a large carrot shaped bathtub.

"You're a dumb thmart perthon." Tabane halfheartedly retorted.

"How did you even manage to get drunk? I thought your augments processed stuff like that really fast?"

"I tried reeeeeally hard. Drank enough to kill two people." she said, holding up three wobbly fingers.

Chifuyu sighed. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up, then sobered up."

Chifuyu grabbed the bottom of Tabane's vomit soaked shirt and tried to pull it off over her friends head. Tabane moaned and halfheartedly struggled, but Chifuyu was having none of it and had her shirt off in moments. Without looking, Chifuyu tossed it into a nearby laundry basket.

"Thith, ith, no time for thhecret dethireth Chi Chan."

Chifuyu frowned and turned on the tap. The shower head doused Tabane in cold water, eliciting a shrill shriek and involuntary spasm.

The water stopped flowing a moment later at Chifuyu's command. "Are you going to behave now?" she asked.

Tabane nodded meekly, her tongue finally having withdrawn back into her mouth.

Chifuyu then realized that the vomit had soaked all the way through to Tabane's bra. "You had better be to drunk to remember this." she said before reaching around, unclasping Tabane's bra and sending it to join her shirt in the hamper.

True to her nod, Tabane said nothing and didn't struggle anymore. Within another minute, her pants, socks, and even her carrot emblazoned panties were in the hamper as well.

Chifuyu made sure to pull the shower head from the wall mount and test the temperature this time before starting to gently clean the remaining vomit staines off of her friends skin.

They sat together in silence for several minutes before Chifuyu moved on to Tabane's hair. It took several washes with an obnoxiously pink shampoo before her hair was finally clean. After that, she dried Tabane off the best she could and wrapped a towel around her, just in case the crew was already clamouring about the facility.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get you to bed so you can sleep this off."

Heavily supporting Tabane, Chifuyu escorted her through a few corridors and into a bedroom out of Alice in Wonderland. She gently tucked Tabane into a carrot shaped bed with little rabbit pillows.

As she turned to go clean herself up, Tabane softly grabbed her sleeve. "I love you Chi Chan." she whispered groggily before drifting off to sleep.

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, a slight whisper of a smile crossed the face of Chifuyu Orimura.

* * *

The control room was already abuzz when Chifuyu returned, vomit free. Aaron, Charlotte, and Laura were at the heart of it all, directing the crews aboard and getting everyone settled.

"Report!" Chifuyu ordered, getting their attention.

Laura turned to Chifuyu as the others continued to work.

"All ships have docked successfully mentor. There are several large IS testing warehouses located on the lower levels, we have garrisoned all the students and teachers there while the crews remain aboard the subs. We have the year three class and the teachers going through the disassembled IS units around the facility trying to get together any units they can re-built, but it doesn't' look like it's going to be an easy process."

"Good job, but we can't just sit on our hands while we settle in. Aaron, Dunois, get over here." she called.

The pair quickly dispensed a few more orders and jogged over to Chifuyu.

"Yes ma'am?" Charlotte asked.

"I've got jobs for all of you" Chifuyu said. "We need to start laying the groundwork for a counterstrike right away. If we wait until we get settled, it gives them all the more time to secure their grip on the worlds populace."

"Aaron, Dunois, I want you to take one of the subs and head for England; get in touch with Miss Alcott and have her rendezvous with you; Ichika should be capable of watching over the wounded on his own. Once you link up, head to France; I need you to see if you can get the Dunois corporation to back our resistance."

"I haven't spoken to my papa since I decided to stay at the academy, I don't even know if he would see me." Charlotte admitted.

"I know, but you're still our best chance and we need every advantage we can get. We have plenty of pilots, even if they need more training, which I will see to, but we don't yet know how much of the tech here is usable; we'll need machines for them to pilot."

"I'll do whatever I can, Miss Orimura" Charlotte said.

"Miss Bodewig, you're going to Germany."

"Yawol, mentor. I will find the other members of the Schwarzer Hase; they will not submit to this Abigail's authority."

"My thoughts exactly," Chifuyu said causing Laura to smile. "However, I still don't want you going alone. Miss Himegami and Miss Cruze have the most combat experience out of the representative contenders. I want them along as your back up."

Laura paused for a moment, the thought of her students on the front lines again giving her pause. "Yawol." she finally replied before saluting and marching off.

"You sure that you'll be fine here Chi?" Aaron asked. "With the five of us gone, there won't be much left to defend this place if Abigail finds you."

"We'll be fine, if she knew where this place was, it would have been her first target. We're safe here, at least for now. Tabane will recover quickly and we'll start planning a larger counter-offensive. Until then, we need to gather as many people to our banner as we can."

"Alright." Aaron said. "Good luck Chi."

Chifuyu turned to get to work as Aaron and Charlotte left the command centre.

* * *

**Hey everyone, sorry for the insanely long wait for this chapter, but I want to assure anyone still reading that this fic is not dead. I had a lot big big life stuff happen, the very least of which was my computer dying and not being able to replace it for 4 months. :(**

**Anyway, I'm back now, though my updates will be a little less frequent. I'm planning for once or twice a month, but I'll try to do more if I can.**

**That being said, since at this point in the story there is a lot of stuff about to happen at the same time, I figured I'd let you all decide what part I write next from the following options:**

**\- Aaron and Charlotte try to meet up with Cecilia and head to France.**

**\- Ichika and Adam try to get the wounded to a hospital.**

**\- Tatenashi tries to find Kanzashi.**

**\- Laura, Ramona, and Shizuka try to make it to Germany.**

**I will have time to start working on the next chapter in about a week or so. Please leave your vote in the review section and I'll tally them up before I get to work. Theses are the premises for the next 4 chapters so the vote is only for the order they will be told, because they all will eventually be told. **

**Thank you all for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy this series. **

**P.S. I'm not sure how much interest crosses over, but I also have a Dark Souls short story I just put up as well if anyone is interested. **


End file.
